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Holiday Shopping is Fun for Kids at the Holiday Store

When it comes to Christmas shopping, adults and teens have Black Friday, but kids have the one-stop-shop Holiday Store at the Library.

The annual extravaganza begins Saturday, Nov. 24, at the Library Center and goes through Dec. 2. The same great low-priced gift selection will also be available at the Library Station on Dec. 1, one day only.

It’s one of the few kids’ stores where they can stretch their quarters and dollars when they shop for Mom, Dad, brothers, sisters, teachers and friends. Everything is priced from 25 cents to $8.

The Holiday Store is sponsored by the Between Friends Gift Shops at the libraries, and Manager Shelli Kaminski still remembers one little boy last year who was brimming with excitement as she wrote up his sales ticket. He eagerly showed her what he was buying for his parents and brother. And when Shelli gave him his receipt, she recalls, “He sighed with pleasure and exclaimed, ‘Oh! I’ve never had a receipt before!’”

That’s part of what makes the Holiday Store fun for everyone – kids, parents, grandparents (yes, adults can help) and the many Library volunteers who help the children select and wrap their purchase.

But there are other things: Children get the thrill of budgeting, buying and giving gifts with their own money. Their purchases also enable the Between Friends Gift Shops to give proceeds to the children’s Summer Reading Program. That amounted to $4,500 for the 2012 program, which served more than 13,400 kids.

Opening day of the Holiday Stores kicks off with the annual Holiday Open House from 8:30-10 a.m. Saturday in the Library Center auditorium, and from 8:30-10:30 a.m. Dec. 1 in the Library Station children’s department. Kids can celebrate with games, refreshments, crafts, stories, free photos with Santa Claus and the movie, “Polar Express.”